Purple Procrastination Pony

Procrastination? There were plenty of other things I could (should?) have been doing but I chose to spend hours drawing instead. It would have been pleasant to have had a good picture at the end of it but it wasn’t to be.

A few years ago I bought a set of pens because they looked pretty and came in a puzzle box. I’m not usually a sucker for packaging but they hit me with a triple whammy; art products, clever box, pretty colours. When I got them home I drew little colour swatches on a piece of paper then left it on a windowsill. Imagine my disappointment when, after only a few days of weak November sunshine, the swatches had faded – I wasn’t going to be able to use the pens for anything that was going to be displayed. So they sat in the drawer until I used them for doodling recently.

I’d been enjoying doodling with pen because if I make a mistake it’s permanent. This may not sound like a plus to you but it teaches control freaks like me to be a bit more relaxed about things. That also applies to planning. Normally I spend as much time (maybe more) planning and preparing my art pieces as I do actually executing them. With doodling I just draw the next thing that pops into my head. There is very little planning involved. It’s quite liberating. However, I have to admit that this last mistake made me a little sad.

So, on to the pony. Everything was going okay until I decided to use watercolour over the pens. The fine black pen stayed put but the black pen from the pretty, puzzle box bled. 😦 Also, the purple paint went patchy because I wasn’t being careful enough. If you’re having trouble understanding my predicament, here are photos of the ruined picture.

So what did I learn? Don’t buy pens because of pretty packaging, and test new combinations of media before potentially spoiling hours of work. Sometimes it’s okay to be cautious and nerdy. There were also lessons about pride, possessiveness and perfectionism.

Of course you see a mistake – you know the plan that you had for it – but then it’s the audience who don’t see it as a mistake but actually a well done piece of art so that is something to get you started on your way to warming up to your “mistake” and liking the piece 😀

You’ve given me a strong desire to have peas for lunch. Growing up the color purple and horses were two of my favorite things — so I love it no matter what. If you hadn’t told me your “judgment” that the bleeding was a “mistake” then I would have said when are you going to finish it. As the horse is cantering, the “bleeding” seems to be the wind messing with the horses chi. 😀 Thanks for being brave and perfectly sharing your “imperfections”,

LOL It took me a minute to get the “peas for lunch” thing, then I had to kick myself. 😉
I’m glad you liked it. I like your idea of the wind interfering with the horse’s chi. 🙂 And thanks for recognising how difficult it is for me to share work that (in my eyes) has gone wrong.

Thanks. You were mentioned on one of the blogs I follow. From the little of your blog I’ve read so far there seems to be a lot of overlap in our interests e.g. Japan, sci-fi, physics/science, origami. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

You know, Sarah, due to my corneal disease I can’t even tell what’s wrong with your lovely art! I’m a perfectionist too and perhaps that’s a silver lining in becoming visually impaired, although I must say I’d rather have my perfect vision back. Thanks for sharing your purple pony and clever use of Ps…
A 🙂

Thank you. 😀
I don’t have corneal disease but I think I can kind of understand what you mean because I’m incredibly short-sighted. When I take off my glasses the world goes into soft focus. When there’s plenty of light it can make quite mundane scenes magical. I often look at my art without glasses to check that I’ve got a nice balance between light and shade. But I’m grateful that I can put my glasses back on.

I wish I could put glasses on! 🙂 Due to keratoconus, I’m now nearsighted, farsighted, and have what is called irregular astigmatism. It creates very poor, ghosted vision (multiple images) and lots of issues from light, so I can understand that. I do know what you mean about “soft focus” as everyone looks so young now, even if I see 6 faces on 1 body. I’ve heard of some artists with my eye disease–I wonder what your art would look like if you created something that you saw in the distance without your glasses? Food for thought (and glad you only have myopia as it’s called by the doctors)…

Do glasses not help at all? My nanna was legally blind so I’m aware of some of the difficulties you face. She was also deaf and had a hearing dog. She always said that the worse thing would be if she went totally blind. She was very afraid of that.
I’ve heard of visually impaired artists too, it would interesting to see if I could reproduce what I see naturally. I’m very grateful for my glasses – they are probably my most precious possession.

Oh, I’m sorry about your nanna–do they know what the cause was? Some genetic disorders can cause both. 😦 My disease was caused by a genetic connective tissue disorder.

Yes, being even half-blind is awful and I’d rather be half-deaf as I’m a visual person like you. I also have very little help and you probably know how hard that is from your nanna. Keratoconus is a degenerative corneal disease and glasses only help at the very early stage, and I flew past that in a few months after it showed up in 2011. I can get some vision back with very special, hard contacts for my disorder (prosthetic corneas) that cost a fortune in the US, but they’re too painful to wear unless I have to drive to see the doctor. Boo! And right now, I can see so-so on my adapted laptop.

You really should try to reproduce what you see naturally sometime! It could help with the perfectionism that I suffer from, as well.

Sorry, I should have said that my nanna wasn’t always blind – her blindness was age-related.
It must have been terribly hard for you to go from normal vision to little vision so quickly, and with little help. As a visual person that is the last of the senses I would choose to sacrifice (as if we are ever given a choice in the matter). I’m sorry to hear that the prosthetic corneas are too painful to wear all the time. Is there a possibility of a corneal transplant?

Ugh, I lost my reply because I need to go to sleep! Yes, they can do transplants, but you often still need the evil lenses. In my case, I can’t as my “KC” was caused by the genetic disorder and it causes bad scarring and poor wound healing, and corneal scars = bad blindness.

Anyway, I really think we should get a choice in the matter on which sense to lose! Ha! 🙂

I have had similar mixed media mixups. Now I make photocopies of the black and white drawings on good quality paper. Sometimes I make photocopies of the finished color drawings too and use them in future collages. It has really helped me feel freer to experiment. It takes me so long to complete the line drawings (due to eye and head challenges) that I try to leverage my work. I am also starting to use them as my own coloring pages – fun side benefit. Really nice work even with the smudges – it gives it a Wabi-sabi feel!

Those are really good ideas, thanks Jeanette. I’ve never used my line drawings as colouring pages but I might start. It sounds like fun. I’ve also been thinking about doing more collages too.
Funny you should mention wabi-sabi. My Japanese penpal saw this piece on my blog and liked it so much that I sent it to her. I guess she could appreciate the imperfections better than me. 🙂